The push to talk

Standards, emerging technologies get emergency crews closer to unified communications, but a lot of static remains<@VM>SIDEBAR | One vision of unified communications

By Rutrell Yasin

Aug 28, 2008

When Hurricane Katrinawreaked havoc on theGulf Coast three yearsago, the storm left Louisiana in a uniqueposition to boost first responders' communicationscapabilities.

'A lot of communications systems hadbeen destroyed here in the first respondercommunity,' said Col. Ronnie Johnson,primary staff officer for communicationsat the Louisiana Army National Guard.Guard officials realized they needed aninteroperable broadband system thatcould deliver high-speed voice and datafor daily operations and emergencies.

The Guard decided to deploy a cellularsystem on wheels from Rivada Networksthat first responders can set up in an affectedarea, re-establishing cell phone connectivityon a prioritized basis duringemergencies, Johnson said. The InteroperableCommunications Extension System(ICES) provides interoperable communicationsamong cell phones, personal digitalassistants, laptop PCs, landlines andtraditional Land Mobile Radio systems.

Using bridging technology, the Guardcan link the network with the LouisianaState Police's 700 MHz voice radio system,the system most commonly used byfirst responders in the southern part ofthe state, Johnson said.

Communication breakdowns

Difficulties in communications betweenfirst responders from different agenciesand jurisdictions during emergencieshave been repeatedly identified as a majorproblem in disaster response efforts.

Every significant event, from the terroristattacks of September 2001 to hurricanesKatrina and Rita in 2005, exposedweaknesses in the ability of first respondersand emergency operations personnelto communicate effectively.

However, each disaster produced lessonsofficials can learn from, and technologiesemerge to improve communication,such as Rivada's Code DivisionMultiple Access'based cellular system.

Wireless data networks, IP-based mobilecommunications devices and location-based commercial services provideopportunities to improve command andcontrol and situational awareness.Hughes Systems, Motorola, Sprint Nextel,PacStar and Verizon are a few of thecompanies that are introducing new mobile and satellite communications systems that support interoperability standardsand sport multiband radio and bridgingtechnology to link disparate systems.

The technology exists to achieve interoperability,Johnson said. 'The biggestchallenge we have always found with interoperabilityis policies and proceduresmore than any of this technology,' he said.

'The whole issue of emergency communicationsinteroperability has been a challengefor some time. The least of the challengesis technology,' agreed Bob Dix, vicepresident of government affairs and criticalinfrastructure protection at JuniperNetworks.

'There are still cultural impediments,'Dix said. 'Interoperability is still aboutpeople, process and technology.'

Another major hurdle is a lack of funding,industry experts say. Large metropolitanareas have access to federal grants forcommunications systems, but smaller localjurisdictions might have other priorities oreconomic considerations, often leavingthem without new, interoperable systems.

Achieving interoperability at the federal,state and local levels will require a massivereplacement of radio communicationsequipment with standards-based systems,said Bruce Walker, vice president of homelandsecurity at Northrop Grumman.

'The likelihood that you will see a BigBang approach that replaces all this radiotechnology so that standards becomesomething that is the baseline, you're talking2015, 2018, 2020' for pervasive interoperabilityat all levels of government,Walker said.

DHS' emergency plan

The Homeland Security Departmentreleased in July its National EmergencyCommunications Plan (NECP) that outlinesa comprehensive approach towardinteroperable communications.

'The purpose of the NECP is to promotethe ability of emergency responseproviders and relevant government officialsto continue to communicate in theevent of natural disasters, acts of terrorismand other man-made disasters, and toensure, accelerate and attain interoperableemergency communications nationwide,'according to the plan.

Before the plan was released, all U.S.states and territories had developedStatewide Communication InteroperabilityPlans that identified near- and longterminitiatives for improving communicationsinteroperability.

NECP offers guidance to first-responderagencies but does not mandate specifictechnologies. However, it does set goalsand timelines for establishing minimumlevels of interoperability.

By 2010, 90 percent of all high-riskurban areas designated within the UrbanAreas Security Initiative (UASI) shouldbe able to demonstrate response-levelemergency communications within onehour for routine events that involve multiplejurisdictions and agencies. By 2011,75 percent of non-UASI jurisdictionsshould be able to demonstrate the samething, and by 2013, 75 percent of all jurisdictionsshould be able to demonstrate response-level emergency communicationswithin three hours of a significant event.

'These are ambitious targets, but I applaudthem for coming up with these' metrics,said Richard Andrews, senior adviserfor homeland security at NC4, a provider ofincident management software that forgesinformation sharing among regional emergencyoperation centers.

One challenge will be to define what response-level communications reallymeans, Andrews said. 'There is not really acommon definition of what that means,' hesaid. 'It has many different components.'

According to NECP: 'Response-levelemergency communication refers to thecapacity of individuals with primary operationalleadership responsibility to manageresources and make timely decisionsduring an incident involving multipleagencies, without technical or proceduralcommunications impediments.'

For instance, the Project 25 suite ofstandards has been instrumental in forginggreater communications interoperabilitybetween disparate digital Land Mobile Radios.Project 25 ' a public/private effort towardcommunications interoperability 'is the standard that DHS and all of themajor state and local public safety agencieshave adopted, said Bob Schassler,Motorola's vice president of North Americagovernment markets. Most grants andfederal money are now tied to implementingP25 systems, he said.

'I think there are a lot of teeth in thefunding for standards,' Schassler said.'We've deployed 150 different P25 networksaround the country.'

Grant guidance has been incorporatedinto Safecom, a communicationsprogram at DHS' Office for Interoperabilityand Compatibility(OIC) that provides research, development,testing and evaluation; guidance;tools; and templates on communications-related issues to local,tribal, state and federal emergencyresponse agencies.

'The current grant guidance containsrecommendations for all new additionalvoice systems to be compatible with theP25 suite of standards and those, ofcourse, are intended to help manufacturersproduce equipment that is interoperableand compatible,' said Amy Kudwa, aDHS spokeswoman.

'We do allow for purchases of equipmentthat are not Project 25-compliant,providing there are compelling reasonsfor using other solutions,' Kudwa said.

Public/private partnershipsAny movement toward greater interoperabilityworks best when it has strongpolitical leadership at the regional level.That's been the case in Arkansas, with formerGov. Mike Huckabee and currentGov. Mike Beebe, and in Michigan, underGov. Jennifer Granholm, Schassler said.

Arkansas acts as the cellular networkoperator for the public safety network, hesaid. There is a standards-based networkthroughout Arkansas, so if federal agencieshave to come in during a crisis orother municipalities have to come togetherwith state agencies, they can all communicateon a common technology.

Federal agencies can bring their P25-compliant radios, which will operate inArkansas. 'In the past, you couldn't dothat because vendors had equipment withproprietary protocols,' Schassler said.

In the past, radios might have been interoperablewith what a public safetyagency had but not with other devices becausethere was never a standard to establishdigital, analog, UHF and VHF communications.

'Audio cross-connectbridges have come a long way,' Lin said.'But having a standard will definitely assistinteroperability going forward.'

DHS' OIC is establishing a P25 ComplianceAssessment Program to test vendors'equipment for compliance. NECP recommendsthat the program be ready to starttesting 'equipment for compliance withapproved interfaces' in six months.

CAP is a general format for exchangingall-hazard emergency alerts and publicwarnings across all kinds of networks.The protocol is a standard maintainedby the Organization for theAdvancement of Structured InformationSystems.

AtHoc, which offers a notificationand alerting system, uses theCAP specification in its technologyto communicate with otheremergency alerting systems andpublic address systems, said AvivSiegel, chief technology officer atthe company, which counts the Air Forceamong its government customers.

CAP is a necessary first step, but it is notenough, he said. CAP 1.1 defines only theinformation payload of a warning. For example,the transport and routing aspects' such as whether it runs via HTTP orHTTPS ' have not been defined, Siegelsaid.

EDXL involves a mix of technical andlinguistic standards, Walker said. A responderusing HAVE at the scene of anaccident, for example, must talk to hospitalstaff in the same language, using thesame terminology for an injury, he said.

The Justice Department is doing workin this area, he said, making sure that accidentsare described the same way at alllaw enforcement agencies, he said.

Bread-crumb comm

Beyond standards, DHS' Science andTechnology Directorate and other organizationsare researching ways to expandradio's multiband capabilities and definea common connection for bridging devices that use voice over IP.

The National Institute of Standards andTechnology recently tested a possible solutionto the problem of radio dead spots thatcan hamper emergency operations. On Aug.5, NIST researchers tested a bread-crumbcommunication system that uses smartmultihop relays ' the bread crumbs ' thatadvise first responders when to place thenext device to extend the communicationsrange.

NIST assembled the relays from commercialmicroprocessors and other standardhardware. The smarts in the relays comefrom software NIST developed that monitorsthe status of radio communication signals.When a signal weakens, the softwarealerts users so that they can lay down anotherrelay before walking out of range.

Nader Moayeri, manager of NIST's WirelessCommunication Technologies Group,said approaches to establishing ad hoc wirelessnetworks in emergency situations typicallyinstruct first responders to lay downbread-crumb relays at specific locations,such as around every corner in corridors orin every stairwell.

'Static rules do not take into account all theenvironmental variables that affect signaldegradation, such as attenuation, fading andinterference,' Moayeri said. 'The communicationrange in a commercial building corridoris vastly different from that of a factoryfloor, which is unlike a coal mine.'

The prototype, which was conducted withtwo bread-crumb radio systems, one operatingat 900 MHz and the other at 2.4 GHz, isa leap forward, Walker said.

'Imagine, if you will, an attack or incidentin one of the subway tunnels in Washington,D.C.,' he said. 'You have to send a responseteam into the tunnel to the rail car where theincident occurred.'

'It is a great leap forward from that standpoint,'Walker said. 'It eliminates the challengesthat surround structure issues, particularlyfor below-ground operations.'

More than radios

'Typically, when people talk about interoperability, people think radio. And those areimportant,' said Robie Robinson, directorof security and emergency managementfor Dallas County, Texas. However, thereare other ways to share pertinent informationbefore or during a disaster.

Part of the Dallas Urban Area SecurityInitiative, Robinson's jurisdiction isamong 254 others throughout north centralTexas using NC4's Web-enabledE Team incident management applicationwith geographic information systemtracking to link emergency operation centersthroughout the region.

'In the pre-incident management systemworld, we relied on broadcast mediaor radio weather spotters in range,'Robinson said. Now, before an event, eachjurisdiction can report its information toothers.

'In the case of thunderstorms and potentialtornadoes, if I know a [tornado] iscoming from the west, sure the TV will betalking about it and the weather servicewill be giving us reports, but it is interestingto see an update from jurisdictions tomy west to say, 'We're responding to thesecalls and we have this equipment committed,'' he said.

If a jurisdiction starts making requestsfor additional resources, other jurisdictionscan see that. As a storm approaches,they can see how the public safety pictureis progressing in real time, he added.

'It lets us know about resource allocationsbeing made and when jurisdictionsdown the line are impacted,' Robinsonsaid. 'We know which direction to lookfor assistance from them' or at what pointthey need to call the state and ask for assistance.Later, the information can be assembledinto a larger report.

The focus on wireless and radio communicationsis important, agreed CristinGoodwin, senior attorney at Microsoft'sTrustworthy Computing initiative, butthere also needs to be coordination betweeninformation technology and communications,especially with tools thatusers now have.

For example, with Virtual Earth you cansee layouts of buildings online before yougo into them, she said. How does thattechnology fit into emergency management?For one, you can map a city's emergencyrequirements on top of that application,she said.

'We need to be careful when talkingabout interoperability that we don'ttalk too much about communicationsfor emergency response and don'tthink about how to harness other IT,' shesaid.Inglewood, Calif., looks to bridge the gaps among emergency teams.

MIKE FALKOW, acting city administrator for Inglewood, Calif.,has a vision for interoperable emergency communications that couldlight up his region of southern California. Inglewood is about 20minutes from Los Angeles International Airport and sits in themiddle of earthquake country.

During the past three years, city officials have been focused onemergency preparedness, readying Inglewood for a major earthquake,airplane crashes, spills of toxic wastes, and other disasters ordangerous events.

Officials created a division for public safety systems thatwould oversee implementation of technologies such as computer-aideddispatch and records management, mobile data computers,telecommunications, and radio.

“One place I knew we were desperate was the area of mobiletelecommunications,” said Falkow, who is also thecity’s information technology director. “We learnedfrom [hurricanes] Katrina and Rita that if something bad goes down,guess what? The whole telecom is going to go down. If we have [amajor earthquake] down here or a plane goes down, we could lose alot of cell sites.”

Police officers live by their radios, Falkow said. He wanted togive the police department military-grade telecom technology— a mobile system with satellite phone communications andInternet connectivity that could be quickly deployed.

“I wanted to stand up a device, point it to the southernsky and 45 minutes to an hour later get cellular communications ifI wanted to call the White House or other agencies,” Falkowsaid.

IT officials realized that the satellite dish was too large. Theywanted something more mobile. Falkow had limited funds but was ableto pay for new equipment through some asset forfeiture money fromthe police department. He went back to PacStar to see if the citycould get a mobile trailer that had a generator and aself-acquiring satellite dish. He’s in the process offinalizing that purchase. Public safety officials will be able toload everything in a trailer, haul it in back of a command van, goto a city park or other area and create a mobile emergencyoperations center.

Falkow said he wants to bring in a Quantar bay station andanother device to bridge the PacStar with the Motorola radiosystem. “If I have all three, I have police officers and thefirst responders, all in communications with one another, takingcommands from an incident manager,” he said.

The next stage would involve migrating the computeraided-dispatch system off a 25-year-old IBM mainframe to aWindows-based server environment.

The PacStar device is also a server, he said. Other devices canplug into it because it has a router and switch. After the dispatchsystem is on a server, Falkow could make a replica, put it on afirst responder’s vehicle and plug it into the PacStardevice.

“It would be as though the dispatch center down in oursub-basement is fully operational,” Falkow said.

Falkow is working with his representative in the CaliforniaState Assembly, who is a former Inglewood City Council member, toextend the system to other municipalities in that state’sassembly district.